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Sunday, 11 May 2014

Clothes

Clothing probably first appeared some 25,000 to 50,000 years ago. It is believed to have been worn by Neanderthals, who lived in caves in central Europe. Neanderthal people probably noticed that furbearing animals were not bothered by the cold and so began to use animal skins to cover their bodies.

These early garments had no sleeves or fastenings. They were simply wrapped around the body like a large cape. Later, people learned to cut and lace the skins so that they fitted the body more closely.

The people of Egypt's Old Kingdom (which began about 2700 BC) wore very few clothes. The men's sole garment, the schenti, or loincloth, was wrapped about the hips and held in place by a belt.

The Roman citizen wore a toga over his tunic. The toga has been regarded as the masterpiece of draped garments. The garment had been adopted by the Romans from the Etruscans and was originally worn by both men and women. Its surface was unbroken, and it required no fastening with pins or buckles.

The wearing of barbarian clothing in the City of Rome was banned by the Emperor Honorius on April 7, 397.

From about 1550 to 1600 the Renaissance was dominated by Spanish fashions. Spanish influence was seen in devices for expanding women's skirts, sometimes to extraordinary dimensions. The earliest of these was known as the Spanish farthingale. It consisted of an underskirt suspended by means of hoops growing wider toward the hem.

In the American Colonies practically every home was a small clothing factory. Fabrics and finished clothing were produced at home. The women of each household spun yarn and wove cloth. They also made all the clothing for the family, from nightshirts and underwear to men's suits and coats.

The first time an enormous amount of clothing was needed all at once was during the American Civil War, when the Union needed hundreds of thousands of uniforms for its troops. From this need came the ready-made clothing industry.

The female Victorian aristocracy in Britain would change their clothes at least four times a day.

Mir Bahboob Ali Khan (1856-1911), 6th Nizam of Hyderabad and richest prince in India, never wore the same garment twice in his entire lifetime. His clothing, fashioned of fine white muslin, was worn once and then given to palace servants.

During the Second World War, the British government found that they needed to reduce production and consumption of civilian clothes to safeguard raw materials and release workers and factory space for war production. As a result, clothes rationing was announced on June 1, 1941. Rationing lasted, albeit in a gradually reduced format, until March 1949.